Reviewed by Fran Wood
Cora Cash is as spoiled as you’d expect of the beautiful daughter of one of America’s wealthiest families. At 18, she has a fancy for her childhood friend Teddy, but her social-climbing mother, heiress to a flour and grain fortune, has bigger ambitions. Shortly after Cora’s come-out, mother and daughter leave Newport, R.I., for England, where Mrs. Cash intends to marry off Cora to an aristocrat.

This is not an original notion; at the turn of the 20th century, many of England’s impoverished heirs were seeking a rich American wife to preserve their lofty lifestyles and vast estates – a practice engagingly portrayed in last January’s PBS/Masterpiece Theater series “Downton Abbey.” Such exchanges were considered a fair tradeoff: a fortune in exchange for a title.

So Mrs. Cash raises no objection when Cora, having fallen from her horse while fox hunting, is taken to the country home of Ivo, the very eligible and handsome Duke of Wareham, to recuperate – nor is she surprised when the duke proposes marriage. The surprise to Cora is falling in love with Ivo – a love that appears to be reciprocated, at first anyway.

British disdain for Americans isn’t an original concept either, and initially Cora is an object of derision among the British aristocracy, but her beauty, self-confidence and ability to rise above the sneers soon makes her a popular hostess.

But she is increasingly troubled by Ivo’s secretiveness – including his continued interest in his former lover.

Chick-lit? Absolutely. Some 14 savoring hours of it, richly enhanced with lavish descriptions of clothing, homes, parties, and all the other things that make England’s landed gentry – well, England’s landed gentry.Fran Wood is The Star-Ledger’s books editor.